[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14857-14858]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            A WONDERFUL DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, my father used to get up in the morning 
and say:

       Today is the day which the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice 
     and be glad in it.

  It's a verse from the Book of Psalms.
  This is a day I think we can be positive about. All we're hearing is 
negative stuff and bad stuff, but let's talk about the good things.
  Today is the first day in our country that you have the ability to 
apply for health insurance. No matter what your status is, you can go 
down to the exchange and ask for a quote and buy an insurance policy, 
no matter what your condition is. No matter your employer, no matter 
what illnesses you have in your family, no matter what, you can have 
insurance. That brings the United States up to the level of every other 
country in the industrialized world. For the first time, we have joined 
the countries that take care of the health security of their people. 
But it's very clear it's going to be uneven across this country.
  I come from the West Coast. We call it the ``Left Coast.'' 
Washington, Oregon, and California are up and running. They have been 
planning for 3 months how they're going to get out and get everybody 
enrolled. The State of Washington's goal is something like 70 percent 
in the first 6 months for those people who don't have insurance. We're 
serious about making this thing work. The Governor of Kentucky has just 
said almost the same thing.
  There are spots across this country where you are going to see this 
law take effect, and people, for the first time in their life, can 
relax and know that they won't be bankrupted by an illness or injury or 
be able to say: I'm sorry, we can't do for you whatever is necessary 
for you or some member of your family.
  This is a great day.
  In other States, people are going to stand around watching what is 
going on on the West Coast and say: Why can't we have what they have in 
California? Why can't we have what they have in Washington? And the 
answer is: Look to your political leadership. Look to your Members of 
Congress who said: No, we don't want to put a plan in. We don't want a 
plan. They'll say: Yes, we want to repeal and replace, but they never 
once put a ``replace'' on the table.
  I sit on the Ways and Means Committee, where Medicare and the 
Affordable Care Act came from. The Republicans have been in control 
ever since it passed in 2009. They have never put a plan on the table 
to repeal and replace.
  They do not care about people who do not have health insurance. It is 
very clear. The Governors across this country who refuse to take the 
Congress's generous offer of full funding for Medicaid are simply 
saying: We don't care about the poor people in our State. We are not 
going to provide health care for them. Even if the Federal Government 
will pay the whole thing, they say: No, they can't have it.
  The people of those States are going to have to look, Mr. Speaker, at 
their leadership and say: What are you doing? Do you not understand 
what it is to be a human being in this society without health insurance 
and wait and wait and wait until whatever it is that's bothering you is 
so bad that you have to go to the emergency room?
  The reason some people have good health care in this country is 
because they have health insurance and they can have preventive care. 
They can have mammograms, colonoscopies, blood pressure checks, sugar 
checks, and all kinds of things that people who do not have health 
insurance don't have access to because they can't afford it.
  Beginning today, anybody in this country can have their blood 
pressure checked and their blood sugar checked to see if they have high 
blood pressure or diabetes. They will be able to begin the process of 
having much better health care and not have to worry about what happens 
to their family.
  I talked to Bill Frist, who was the Republican leader of the Senate, 
for about an hour the other day on the phone. He said: Jim, what those 
guys ought to do is simply amend the bill that's there and make it 
work. There hasn't been a single amendment brought in the House to make 
it work better.

[[Page 14858]]

  This is a wonderful day for everybody.

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